Draft 1/27/2000

http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs092/2000/cs92.syllabus.html

Introduction

The Educational Software Seminar at Brown (CS92/ED89), pioneered by
Andy van Dam,
combines topics and activities that, at other universities, would
almost certainly be encountered only in different courses offered in
different departments. The basic idea of the Seminar -- that groups of
undergraduates, primarily but not exclusively those with interests and
abilities in computer science and education, work closely with local
teachers to design, create and implement classroom software that meets the
needs and specifications of those teachers -- has made it a model of
interdisciplinary and university-school collaboration in the area of
educational technology. The goals of the Seminar are to engage and
support students in these collaborations while they read about, discuss,
and come to understand some of the historical, cognitive, technical,
and sociological issues involved in the use of computers in education,
and particularly
in the creation and use of educational technology.

This syllabus provides a list of the books and articles we'll be reading
and discussing, as well as a week-by-week description of the course.
Although they are not included below, we will likely have guests
visiting throughout the semester. Consistant with the seminar model,
at least one student will have the
responsibility of presenting and leading the discussion of the readings
in each class session.

Beeman, William O., and Anderson, Kenneth T., and Bader, Gail, and Larkin,
James, and McClard, Anne, and McQuillan, Patrick, and Shields, Mark.
"Hypertext and Pluralism: From Lineal to Non-lineal Thinking." (Brown
University: Insitute
for Research in information and Scholarship, 1987).

Sandholtz, Judith. "A Model, Not a Mold: A Comparison of Four
School-University Partnerships," in David M. Byrd and D. John
McIntyre (eds.), Research on the Education of Our Nation's Teachers.
Teacher Education Yearbook V, Association of Teacher Educators.
(Corwin Press, 1997), pp. 258-276.

Week 0: January 27

Introduction to the Seminar. We'll begin with an explanation
of the unique approach of CS92 to the creation of educational software
and the analysis of educational technology, and then discuss why it's
interesting to combine education and computer science in a seminar
setting. Details of the seminar will be discussed along with the
syllabus and the pool of projects
for the semester. We'll
also devote some time to talking about what makes for a successful
seminar, and for successful project work in CS92.

Week 1: February 1 and 3

The culture of computers and its consequences. We'll discuss
Ellen Ullman's perspective on the thrills and perils of programming,
and use her narrative to discuss the culture(s) of computing
generally and what (if anything) is special about the times we live
in. Secondary readings include an excerpt from Weizenbaum's famous
critique of the effects of the computer on our image of ourselves,
as well as a contemporary perspective on the political economy of
software. We'll also spend some time discussing the projects in
more detail, and the sorts of interests and talents
which might be right for each of them -- on Thursday the project
teams will be formed as the projects are selected.

Week 2: February 8 and 10

The Philosophy of Education I. Careful discussions about educational
software inevitably lead to discussions about the purpose of education
and educational institutions. This week we'll read Dewey's
Experience and Education, a general and influential
philosophy of schooling, and then we'll read the philosopher Scheffler
about issues arising from the use of computers in schools.

Required reading: Dewey 1938 (Tuesday) and Scheffler 1986 (Thursday)
Recommended reading: Dewey 1916, Russell 1916, Russell 1926,
Ryan 1998.
Other Assignments: Project teams should meet with your
sponsoring teacher and send a summary of the meeting to the
list. The team should then begin their revised project description.

Week 3: February 15 and 17

Learning and Technology I. We'll turn to thinking about what
and how technology can contribute to learning, and what the
characteristics of effective learning tools should be. We begin the
week with an overview of learning theories and then read excerpts
from a book by a research team who grounds their educational
(and software) philosophies in a cognitive psychology of the student.
We will meet in the Reference Room of the Rockefeller Library
on Tuesday so that one of the librarians can give us a clue
about how to search the research literatures relevant to educational
technology.

Week 4: February 24

All About (our) Authoring Tools.
We'll meet in the Multimedia Lab for a demonstration of and discussion
about the various authoring tools that have been used and are currently
available for use in the Seminar.

Required reading: For background, you can read the
Authoring Tools Overview and,
as the projects begin to gather steam and take time,
you may want to read ahead in the syllabus, and get
some of the required and recommended readings out of the way.Other Assignments: Project Pages should exist by the 29th.

Week 5: February 29 and March 2

Evaluating Educational Software.
This week we begin to develop criteria (and an appropriate
vocabulary and framework) for judging and discussing
the quality of educational software and educational technology.
We'll read articles that reflect different critical
perspectives and approaches of computer scientists as
well as educational technologists and educators.

Week 6: March 7 and 9

Studying Educational Technology
We'll discuss Cuban's influential history of classroom
technology (1920-1986) as well as the (summary)
study of the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow Project. The
recommended reading, Allison Druin's The Design of
Children's Technology, includes articles concerned
with both evaluation and research.

Week 7: March 14 and 16

Storyboard Presentations I. Project teams
will present their projects and storyboards to the class, and
we'll evaluate their approach,
their documentation of the project and their prospects for success.
Readings may be assigned by the project teams (e.g. course curriculum),
but the work of the next two weeks will be in creating and documenting
"sketches" or prototypes of the software.

Assignments: Storyboards should be posted or discussed
on the project pages, and all project teams should decide on the tool
they will use to create their software by the end of the week.

Week 8: March 21 and 23.

March 25 - April 2: Spring Break!!

Week 9: April 4 and 6

Synthesis I: Learning From Learners and Educational Software.
As project work is well underway, we'll begin to bring together ideas
from the various disciplines (and readings), both for the sake of
developing keener critical faculties concerning educational software,
and for thinking about the role of computers in education generally.
On Tuesday we'll motivate the discussion by looking at further
examples of commercial software, and on Thursday we'll read a
chapter from The Design of Children's Technology
(Druin 1999).

Week 10: April 11 and 13

Synthesis II: Education in an Information Society
This week, we'll try to bring together some of the threads that
have run through the Seminar by looking first at the dismal history of
classroom technology in the United States, and then at a
vision of how
networks and virtual environments could transform the nature and
dynamics of education.

Week 11: April 18 and 20

Synthesis III: The Software/Education We Need.
We'll read two chapters from Engines for Education by
Schank and Cleary that try to formulate principles of good design for
educational software as well as curriculum. We'll use these texts to
bring together and summarize many of the issues we've discussed in
class and that you've run across in your project work.

Week 12: April 25 and 27

Software testing and technology assessment I.
We'll begin testing some of the software created by the project teams, as
part of the project presentations, in preparation for classroom
implementation. We'll also discuss what it means to evaluate the
effectiveness of software in the classroom, and we'll read selected
cognitive learning theory studies that attempt to assess the value
of integrating technology in the classroom.

Week 13: May 2 and 4

Software testing and technology assessment II.
We'll complete our own testing and analysis of the software
created by the project teams, and discuss ways to analyze the
effectiveness of the classroom software over time. If we can finish
the project presentations on the 27th, we will devote the 29th
to a discussion of the future of educational software, with
guests from the Industry as well as education. If we do not
finish by the 27th, we will use the 4th of May for that
discussion.

Week 14: May 9 and 11

Final Presentations. A final session, in the Multimedia Lab,
at which teams will present their finished products. We'll reflect on
the course, brainstorm about how it might be improved next year,
and plan for the presentation/party for our teachers, and Brown
faculty members.